The Conservative Party has elected its new leader, the combative 44 year old MP Kemi Badenoch. Meanwhile, the government's latest budget indicates a significant shift in approach to tax and revenue.  Guest: Ian Dunt, Columnist for “i” news and co-host of the Origin Story podcast.  

Since announcing his retirement in 2022 Shaun Micallef has made two new television series and written a new book of short stories and poetry. So when will he really retire? And when does he think comedy is no longer funny?  Guest: Shaun Micallef, comedian and author of “Slivers, shards and skerricks – a one man anthology by Australia’s most intelligent and handsome renaissance man,” published by Affirm press.  

As Labor heads into election campaigning mode Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced Labor will cut student debt, but Bernard Keane says unless we fix housing young people still face huge disadvantage in Australia.  Guest: Bernard Keane, political editor, Crikey  

A trove of letters discovered in Moscow shows that dialogue between warring populations, and even civil disagreement, are possible. Guest: historian Alexis Peri

Upon discovering that sex work is decriminalised in New Zealand, Antonia Murphy decided to build her own business: an ethical escort agency called The Bach. 

Journalist Evan Rail investigates the lucrative market for vintage "pre ban" bottles of absinthe, from before WWI. Most bottles are genuine, but some are fake. 

In 1788 there were at least fifteen convicts of African descent on board the First Fleet, and hundreds more followed. Who were they, and how were the Black convicts transported to Australia linked to the slave trade? Guest: Santilla Chingaipe, author of Black Convicts: How slavery shaped Australia.

Why would some of our 'Old Stone Age' ancestors have climbed into deep, black caves in Northern Spain, about 18,000 years ago, and created art in the dark?  Guest: Izzy (Isobel) Wisher, palaeolithic cave art researcher, Aarhus University, Copenhagen

A lawsuit has been filed in the US federal courts alleging negligence, wrongful death and deceptive trade practices by a tech company after a teenage boy committed suicide. The boy had developed an online relationship with a “chatbot” character he had created via an app called Character.AI.  His mother believes the company abused and preyed on her son, but the company’s founder says it is up to individuals to figure out what provides value for them – they just provide the...

Bruce Shapiro previews the final week of the US presidential campaign.

Stephen Fry has had an extraordinary life. From being a teenage runaway, ending up in prison, to going to Cambridge and meeting Hugh Laurie and Emma Thompson, discovering he was bi-polar and digging up his Jewish history. Throughout it all his love of language and writing have been his constants.  Stephen reflects on the power of story-telling, how to counter impostor syndrome and the things he absolutely can’t do.  Guest: Stephen Fry. Stephen is touring Australia for his show "An evening...

75 years ago, on 17 October 1949, Australia's Governor General Sir William McKell lit the first stick of dynamite for the Snowy Hyrdo scheme. 

After nine years of war between an American and Saudi-backed government and the Houthis backed by Iran, Yemen is a disaster zone with twenty million people facing starvation. Tawakkol Karman is a Yemini journalist and human rights advocate who led hundreds of protests against Yemen’s dictatorial regime and whose work was recognised with a Nobel Peace Prize. She says Yemen must have self-determination, free of foreign interference.  Guest: Tawakkol Karman, journalist and human rights advocate.

Bill Gates, the boy-genius who dropped out of Harvard to start a technology company, became the world’s richest man and is now the world’s most prominent philanthropist.  What kind of man is he and what influence does he hold? Guest: Anupreeta Das, author of Billionaire, Nerd, Saviour, King, The Hidden Truth about Bill Gates and his Power to Shape our World

Oxford theologian Nigel Biggar reckons with the history and legacy of the British Empire, in Australia and around the world.

As the US sends its Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Middle East envoy, Amos Hochstein, to try to gain a ceasefire agreement, it seems Israel has no intentions of stopping the bombing of Northern Gaza and Southern Lebanon. Journalist Antony Loewenstein says Israel has a strong motivation for an endless war – it’s one of the world’s biggest arms manufacturers and dealers. And he says for those companies selling military weapons, Gaza and the West Bank are their proof of concept. Guest:...

Presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump have spent much of the campaign in Pennsylvania - the most prized swing state of all. 

Why has every generation from biblical times onwards thought it would be the one to witness the end of the world? Dorian Lynskey explores how apocalyptic thought has evolved through the ages, looking at how our obsession with Armageddon has played out in fiction and film.  Guest: Dorian Lynskey, author, journalist and podcaster His new book is ‘Everything Must Go: The Stories We Tell About The End of the World’ (Picador)

In June last Australia moved what was then the last refugee from offshore processing on Nauru. But since then Australia has been quietly sending people back, and they are struggling to put food in their mouths. The Asylum Seeker Resource Centre says the people there are reliant on charity to survive, where the cost of fruit and vegetables is around four times the average cost in Australia, and drinking water costs $70 per fortnight.   Guest: Jana Favero, Deputy CEO of the Asylum Seeker...

Bernard Keane says the election of the first "teal" to the NSW state parliament shows the Liberal party has a lot of work to do to win these seats back at the federal level.  Guest: Bernard Keane, political editor, Crikey    

Learning how birds communicate could help us to better understand the health of our natural ecosystems. 

Journalist Gareth Gore investigates the finances and political influence of the conservative Catholic order, Opus Dei. 

In 2019 Scottish poet and feminist Jenny Lindsay spoke up on Twitter about a post that called for violence against women at a pride march in London. The tweet had been written by a trans activist and was directed at so-called “TERFS” (trans-exclusionary radical feminists). Lindsay says she, and other women who have raised questions about gender identity, have been hounded out of their jobs, and sometimes even out of their cities. But trans activists say their actions are causing harm to the...

 Why the Russian Constitution matters for the world's democracies. 

A Macedonian-British food writer celebrates the foods from the region she was born in,  while also noting the misplaced nationalism attached to foods there - and everywhere.  Guest: Irina Janakievska, food writer